


Let's get these teen hearts beating faster, faster.

by SweetnessandLight



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Teenagers, Angsty Sebastian, Astronomy, Boys In Love, Carl Powers - Freeform, First Meetings, Flirting, Fluff and Humor, I fucking love these little dickheads, Jim Being Creepy, Jim is a Little Shit, Love at First Sight, M/M, Possessive Sebastian, Rumours, Sixth Form
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-17
Updated: 2017-02-17
Packaged: 2018-09-25 04:18:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9802322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SweetnessandLight/pseuds/SweetnessandLight
Summary: School/Sixth Form AU. After being expelled from his previous school Sebastian is sent to Warden Park by his father in the hopes it will amend his violent and rebellious behaviour. However, Seb is instantly entranced by the infamous younger student Jim Moriarty, whose influence far from sets Sebastian on the right path.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimers: Title comes from Lying Is The Most Fun A Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off by P!ATD.  
> I just googled 'secondary schools in Sussex' to find the name Warden Park.

Sebastian squinted up at the ominous grey building as he took a final drag of his cigarette. It was tall, grubby paint crumbling away from the walls in most places and surrounded by fenced off concrete; the gate facing out onto a narrow residential road. It wasn’t nearly so aesthetically pleasing as his previous school, which was all turrets and red brick, but Seb didn’t care. He’d hated it there and he was just as certain he’d hate it here.

_All this dragging the family name through the mud is going to stop, my boy. Public school ought to straighten you out._

Seb stamped out his cigarette and spat on the floor beside it; his father was an imbecile. He thought his son could be swayed by money, thought having the privileges of middle class living taken from him would send him on the straight and narrow, but Sebastian Moran was just as stubborn as Augustus, and would conform to his father’s wishes when all air left his lungs.

He shoved his hands into his pockets as he entered the gate, walking though crowds of other students clumped together, towards the first member of staff he could spot. People stared. Seb ignored them, not fazed by wary eyes following his every move- he was used to it.

He took a note from his father out of his pocket and thrust it forward to the young woman wearing a cardigan and lanyard,

“I’m new.” He stated, not bothering to disguise the boredom in his tone.

The woman started, before smiling uncertainly.

“Ahh,” She looked down at the paper, “Sebastian Moran. Yes, of course. Well, my name is Miss Banner, and welcome to Warden Park.” She regarded him slightly anxiously.

Sebastian raised his eyebrows; apparently his reputation had preceded him.

“Well, I’ll let the office know you’ve arrived, in the meantime I believe you’ve been assigned a buddy, he’ll show you around and-“

“I don’t need a buddy. Thanks.” Seb interrupted her; the last thing he needed was unnecessary interaction with other students- he just wanted to finish his last year of school as easily as possible without getting expelled. The less people he talked to, the less people he would end up beating the shit out of.

“No no no, it’s part of the school regime I’m afraid.” Miss Banner glanced around before calling to a nearby student,

“Jonathan, is Jake around?”

The boy shook his head.

“He’s out on the field, Miss.”

“Well could you go and fetch him, please? His buddy is here.” She gestured to Sebastian.

Jonathan’s eyes flickered over Seb.

“Oh, right.” He answered, looking a cross between intimidated and impressed.

“Jake’s a nice lad.” Miss Banner reassured Sebastian as Jonathan ran off, “and he’s got the same timetable as you so he’ll be able to show you to all your classes.”

Seb threw her an un-genuine smile as he glanced around unenthusiastically.

“I understand you had a... difficult time at your previous school,” She continued, barely holding Sebastian’s attention,

“But we’re a successful institution and I’m sure if you stick to the rules here you’ll get on just fine.” She inhaled pointedly, most likely hinting at the obvious scent of smoke clinging to Seb’s uniform.

He held back a smart remark- getting into trouble before school had even started seemed a bit too disappointing, even for him.

Miss Banner looked relieved as the silence was broken by Jonathan returning with a lanky boy with cropped brown hair.

“Ahh, Jake.” Miss Banner addressed him, “This is your newby, Sebastian Moran.”

Jake grinned at Seb.

“Hey. Listen, mate, you’re built. I may need to recruit you for the rugby team; maybe we wouldn’t get thrashed so badly this year if we had some muscle like you on our side.”

Sebastian raised his eyebrows again.

“I don’t really like sport.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll convert you.” Jake smiled at Miss Banner,

“Thanks, Miss, I’ll show him around.”

Sebastian followed Jake reluctantly towards the building as the teacher waved them off, calling out jokingly,

“Stay out of trouble!”

Sebastian smirked, staying out of trouble wasn’t exactly his strong point.

He half listened as Jake gestured to the main hall, art block and various classrooms on their way to the first lesson of the day- Geography. The inside of the school was just as grim as the outside; cold, flickering lighting illuminating the faces staring at Seb as he followed Jake down the corridor.

“So just to warn you, sometimes the new kids get messed with a little bit, it’s nothing personal, though you’ll probably be alright.” He grinned again, “You must work out, box or something?”

“Yeah.” Seb muttered, “I run and stuff.”

“Well, yeah. I doubt anyone will try anything, you look like, twenty-five. That’s an advantage, you’ll get loads of attention from girls too, but I guess I don’t need to tell you how to handle that.”

He elbowed Sebastian playfully as they passed the maths classrooms.

Seb glanced down at the point of contact with distaste.

“Yeah, pretty sure you don’t. I’m gay.”

Jake laughed, “Yeah, alright.”

Sebastian turned to fix him with a look that wiped the smile from his face.

“You- you’re not joking?” Jake spluttered, slowing down as he walked.

Sebastian rolled his eyes and sped up, leaving him behind temporarily.

The corridor was filling up fast, Seb assumed due to the diminishing time until the first lesson of the day began. People were shoving heartily, though Sebastian managed to pass through the corridor relatively easily, maintaining a ring of wary space around him. His eyebrows furrowed as noticed hoards of students gathering by a large window overlooking the front gate. He walked over slowly, looking over people’s heads into the yard, where a huddle of teachers were gathered and two police cars and a fire engine were parked.

Jake caught up with him, craning his neck to watch.

“Jim Moriarty set fire to the music block again.” He stated, his tone was that of exasperation, but Seb didn’t miss the hint of excitement.

“Who’s Jim Moriarty?” Sebastian asked as a group of people appeared from the front entrance of the school.

A couple of teachers, followed by a student being flanked by two police officers crossed the concrete, apparently aware of the audience they had gathered. The boy was shorter than his ushers, looked about fifteen, with short black hair and large, dark eyes.

They escorted him to the police car slowly- or he escorted them. He seemed to walk with a deliberate arrogance, smirking as his eyes flickered up towards the groups of students watching him. As he was pushed into the back of the car and it exited the yard the crowds began to disperse, with mutters of,

“Not again.”

Seb lingered at the window for a little while longer, temporarily memorised.

“Hey, mate, we’ve got to get to Geography.” His thoughts were interrupted by Jake worrying.

“You didn’t answer my question.” Seb replied, eyes still on the gate the police cars had exited from.

“I can tell you on the way?”

Sebastian frowned and turned to follow him, not particularly bothered if they arrived to Geography on time or not.

“Well firstly I just wanna say, I don’t mind if you are gay, I was just sur-“ Jake began before Sebastian cut him off.

“Don’t worry about it.”

A look of relief crossed the boy’s face before he began his story.

“Right, so Jim Moriarty. He’s kinda the school... well, there’s always one, you know?”

Sebastian nodded; reasonably sure he had been ‘the one’ in his previous school.

“Yeah so, he’s fifteen but he’s in our year now because he’s like, a genius. Moved here from Ireland when he was like nine or something, and he used to be really quiet in the first couple of years, think he got bullied because he was really clever and all weird and ‘different’.”

He made speech mark symbols with his fingers.

“But anyway, in year eight or nine he started sticking up for himself a bit more, stopped taking people’s shit, which is fair enough, but he’s just... I don’t know, he makes a lot of people uncomfortable.

“Like there was this thing when this kid spat at him in the canteen, like properly _spat_ in his face, and he didn’t say anything, just looked this kid dead in the eye and _licked_ it off his face. Shit like that, he just creeps people out. Then he started setting fires, arguing with teachers, got himself a bit of a reputation, so people pretty much leave him alone now.”

Sebastian hadn’t realised he was smirking until they reached the door of the Geography classroom.

***

Sebastian’s first week at Warden Park passed agonisingly slowly. He’d managed to pass through without any major incidents- a few detentions for missing classes and talking back to teachers, but he hadn’t yet _hurt_ anyone.

The school wasn’t so different from his previous one, people weren’t as well-spoken and the classrooms smelt like damp, but eyes still followed him down the corridors, people still whispered. As Jake had predicted, he’d had a fair few advances from the girls who weren’t too afraid to talk to him.

Seb strolled into maths late on Tuesday morning- earning a disapproving glance from his teacher.

“Late again, Sebastian? You don’t want to get into my bad books this early, I can assure you.” She had warned, but Seb wasn’t listening.

Jim Moriarty was sat easily at a desk near the back of the classroom, fiddling idly with his pencil as he stared down at the papers on the table in front of him.

Sebastian cocked his head to one side slightly, staring at the boy curiously as he made his way to an empty seat next to Jake.

Jake greeted him quietly as he sat down,

“Hey, you get lost?”

“Went for a cigarette.” Seb murmured as the teacher continued to talk.

“He’s in our class?” He asked Jake as he pulled his textbook out of his rucksack.

“What? Oh, Moriarty. Yeah he came back today, loads of people were saying he got expelled this time but I didn’t believe it.” Jake answered softly, squinting at the whiteboard.

Seb resisted the urge to turn and look at Moriarty again- he’d found himself wondering about the fate of the boy since he’d been carted off by police last week. He’d always had a quiet sort of respect for arsonists.

Sebastian didn’t bother tuning in to the voice of his maths teacher as he gazed out of the window onto the sports field, mind wandering before something caught his attention.

“Miss, he’s doing it again.” A girl’s voice whined from behind him.

“Jim, please don’t stare at Olivia, it makes her uncomfortable.” The teacher sighed.

Seb’s head snapped around, accompanied by the rustling sound of other students doing the same.

Jim was leant back in his chair, arms crossed against his chest and his black eyes fixed on the girl in the seat next to him, who was leaning as far from him as was physically possible.

“I’m not staring at her.” He answered, his voice was low; accent soft and lulling.

“James.”

“Helen.”

The teacher- Helen- sighed.

“Don’t be smart, Jim.”

His eyes rolled in a full circle from Olivia to Helen as he clicked his neck.

“I am smart.”

Sebastian could feel the corner of his lips tugging upwards as he watched Moriarty- he was strangely fascinating. He seemed so out of place in the small, grey classroom, surrounded by people two years older than him and yet ten years less advanced.

Helen sat down in her desk chair and reached for a stack of yellow cards,

“If you’re not going to cooperate I’ll have to send you to the headmaster’s office.”

“I am cooperating,” He held up his papers and waved them around, “Done. No one else has finished, are you going to send them to the headmaster’s office? Nope. Your classes are _boring,_ Helen. Making Olivia uncomfortable is far more entertaining than listening to your monotonous tones for any longer than five minutes.” His eyes wandered across the classroom, expression nonchalant.

Helen pursed her lips, grabbing one of the cards and scribbling on it furiously.

“You will be spending the rest of the day in isolation, Mr Moriarty. Report to the headmaster immediately, please.”

She looked at him expectantly.

Jim stood up slowly, grabbing his bag and putting one hand in his pocket as he sauntered to the front of the classroom. Sebastian watched him intently as he ignored the yellow slip in Helen’s extended hand, planting both of his down on the desk.

He cocked his head to one side, eyes glinting.

“Bitch.” He spoke the word slowly, exaggerating the consonants.

There was a soft chorus of uncomfortable awe from the other students, and Seb heard Jake whisper,

“Jesus.”

A look of shock crossed Helen’s face before she shouted, almost hysterically,

“GET OUT OF MY CLASSROOM!”

Jim retracted his arms from the desk and strolled towards the door, eyes falling on Sebastian as he passed. A smirk pulled up the corner of his lips as Seb met his gaze curiously, and the younger boy aimed a deliberate wink at him before leaving the room.

There were a few moments of silence as half the students watched the doorway Jim had just disappeared out of and the other half watched Sebastian. The unexpected display of flirting, apparently, not going unnoticed.

Jake was the first to speak.

“I thought you didn’t know him?”

“I don’t.” Seb murmured in reply, heart pounding.

Jake frowned.

“Seems like he likes you.”

“Yeah.” Sebastian grinned, “Think I like him.”

***

Seb sat with Jake and his friends at lunch as he had done every day for the past week- he found them all quite annoying, and contributed very little to the conversation, but he found more people attempted to talk to him if he sat alone.

“Yeah, I’m still trying to recruit Sebastian.” Jake joked- the mention of his name drawing Seb’s attention the their conversation about Rugby.

“You’ve never played?” Nicholas, a stocky boy with a smattering of acne across his forehead, asked.

“Don’t really like team sports.” Seb answered distractedly.

“You’d be good.” Nicholas insisted, earning an agreeing nod from Jake.

“I’m good at lots of things.” Seb said shortly, before adding, “Moriarty doesn’t eat in the canteen?”

He’d been scouring the hall for the dark haired boy since they sat down- he should be out of isolation after the events of the previous day.

“Um, no, don’t think so.” Jake replied, a note of concern in his voice.

“Oh yeah, Jake told us about what happened in your maths class yesterday.” Nicholas cut in, “That Moriarty kid is so weird, he gives me the creeps, honestly.”

Sebastian ignored him, still scanning through the students in the queue to be served.

“Hey, also I’ve been meaning to ask you,” Nicholas continued, “Is it true that in your last school you punched someone so hard you like, dislocated their jaw? Someone said their whole bottom jaw was like hanging off, holding on just by a couple of tendons.”

Sebastian rolled his eyes. He’d broken jaws, but never actually _removed_ any.

He made to retort with a snide remark before a smooth voice with an unmistakable Irish accent drifted from behind them,

“You can’t knock someone’s bottom jaw fully off, it’s anatomically impossible.”

Sebastian turned around to see Moriarty stood next to their table, hands in his pockets. The other boys looked slightly unnerved at his presence; a fact he was aware of and appeared to be revelling in.

“Sorry to interrupt.” He gave them a dazzling smile, “I was wondering if I might _borrow_ Mr Moran temporarily. Well,” He licked his bottom lip,

“I haven’t yet decided if I’m to give him back.” His eyes bore into Sebastian’s.

Magnetic.

“I-“ Jake began before Seb stood up, slinging his backpack over one shoulder.

“I’ll see you guys later.” He didn’t look at them as Jim smirked, turning on his heel to stride out of the canteen.

“You know, it’s rude to stare at people.” Sebastian told him as they walked down the corridor towards the back of the school. He had no idea where Jim was leading him, but judged there was no point in asking. He just followed.

“I realised.” Jim replied as they turned a corner and passed through an old wooden door into what looked like an art classroom- the walls were lined with tatty posters of Van Gogh and Picasso paintings, and there was a paint-splattered sink in one corner.

Jim strolled through the classroom to a door on the other side, opening it to reveal a small area of concrete facing out onto one side of the back field. Sebastian followed him outside, dumping his bag on the ground and pulling a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket as Jim leant back against the metal railing flanking the wall.

Jim watched silently as Seb lit up the cigarette and took a drag, shivering slightly against the chilly wind.

“So, why’d you bring me out here?” He asked the younger boy.

Jim shrugged innocently.

“Thought I’d rescue you from the Moronic Idiot Brigade.”

Sebastian smirked.

“I appreciate it. They’re annoying as fuck.”

Jim smiled; his expression full of knowing.

“Also curiosity got the better of me. There’s something about you, Sebastian Moran...” He added, trailing off as he looked Seb up and down slowly.

“You know, you’re too young to be flirting with me.” Sebastian told him, smirk growing wider.

Moriarty laughed.

“Flirting? Am I that transparent?” He bit his lip, voice holding a sing-song quality,

“Oh well.”

Seb rolled his eyes, crossing the concrete to lean against the barrier next to Jim, putting out his cigarette.

“Don’t worry, your secret’s safe with me.”

“As is yours.” Jim replied, a hint of amusement in his voice, “You’re going to find it difficult making friends if people know you _knocked someone’s jaw off._ ” He imitated Nicholas’s accent perfectly.

Seb sniggered,

“Yeah. Well making friends isn’t exactly my strong point as it is. I tend to rub people up the wrong way.”

“Snaaaap.” Jim smirked, “Looks like we were made for each other.”

Sebastian smiled as he put his hands into his pockets, glancing at the boy two years his junior leaning against the barrier beside him; all huge, black eyes and easy arrogance, and couldn’t help feeling that he was right.

***

“I just don’t get it- Moriarty doesn’t have _friends.”_ Nicholas was complaining as he and Jake followed Sebastian to English the next day,

“In all these years I’ve never known him to openly _like_ anyone, and you turn up, barely say a word to anyone, and suddenly he’s all over you? Like you guys have known each other forever?”

“He isn’t _all over me.”_ Sebastian replied irritably,

“We get on. He’s cool.”

“He’s _cool?_ Mate, the kid’s a fucking _psycho._ ”

“Hey, you fond of your jaw or not?” Seb snapped and they reached the classroom, quieting the shorter boy.

“I mean, mate, it is weird.” Jake added carefully.

The boys had been throwing Sebastian questioning glances since he and Jim had skipped History and turned up late to Spanish together, sitting at the back of the class and spending the entire lesson conversing in low tones.

They’d finally bombarded him with questions when Jim had gone off to his English class, calling,

“Until next time, Sebastian Moran!” loudly down the corridor as he went.

“Do you want to fucking. Drop. It.” Seb replied monotonously, sounding more like he was stating a fact than asking a question.

“Okay, but first I should probably tell you about the Carl Powers thing. I left it out last time because it just creeps me out, but you should probably know.” Jake insisted as they sat down.

“What’s the Carl Powers thing?” Sebastian asked, curiosity sparking to life inside him.

“Okay, so you know I said Moriarty used to get picked on when he first came here? Well it was mostly this one guy, Carl Powers. He was in our year, used to laugh at Moriarty, call him and freak and all that, but then one time he went up to this swimming gala in London and...died. They said he had some kind of fit in the pool and he just drowned, it was a tragic accident, we had an assembly about it.

“But the thing was, just after Carl died is when Moriarty started sort of coming into his own, you know? And he missed like a week of school right before it happened, So, rumours started going around that Moirarty killed Carl. Of course there’s no proof and the post mortem people were pretty sure it was just natural causes, but a lot of people still believe it. Just wouldn’t put it past him, you know? That’s why everyone leaves him alone now.”

Seb stayed silent for a few moments, considering a younger version of the boy he had met just the previous day being capable or murder. He could see why the rumour caught on- he wouldn’t put it past Jim either.

“Has anyone ever asked him?” He inquired finally.

“Asked him?” Jake’s voice was incredulous, “And say what, ‘Hey, Jim, was it you that killed Carl Powers when you were eleven years old?’”

Sebastian shrugged.

“Feel like he’d tell you if you just asked.”

Jake stared at him for a moment.

“This doesn’t bother you? He might have actually _killed_ someone. Murder. But you’re just going to keep hanging out with him?”

“It’s just a rumour.” Seb replied,

“People started loads of rumours about me in my old school.”

“Yeah but they probably didn’t have any truth to them.” Jake argued, frowning.

Sebastian shrugged.

“I’ve done some pretty messed up shit. What’s one murder if they deserved it?”

***

Sebastian’s streak of refraining from violence was short-lived.

In the week since his first conversation with Jim Moriarty he’d found it increasingly difficult to stay away from the younger boy, and had taken to sitting next to him in all the classes they shared and regularly waiting for him outside the ones they didn’t. It was a surreal feeling- Seb couldn’t say he’d ever really _liked_ anyone he’d encountered in his life so far, but something about Jim just made him want to be around him as much as was physically possible. It was the closest thing to a friendship he had ever experienced; they seemed to just _click._

Jim was obliging to all the new attention he was getting; smirking easily as Sebastian began to shadow him as they walked down the corridors, and revelling in the opportunity to talk to Seb about astronomy for _hours._ Sebastian didn’t know anything about astronomy, but watching Jim’s black eyes light up with excitement as he went on about stars and dark matter was strangely entertaining.

_You’re a good listener, Moran. I think I’ll keep you._

Jake and Nicholas weren’t the only ones confused by Moriarty and Moran’s sudden and unexpected relationship- they had temporarily become the talking point of the entire school. People would watch them curiously as Jim greeted Seb outside of his classes with whispers of,

“How can this be real?”

“You think it’s all some weird act?”

“I heard Moriarty’s paying him to be his personal bodyguard or something.”

“I heard he’s paying him for sex.”

Sebastian ignored most of the mutterings, smirking to himself at some of the more amusing theories, until people started getting too ahead of themselves.

For the most part everyone in the school was scared of Sebastian- his tall, muscular frame, irritable expression and reputation for violence had seen to that- and the association with Jim seemed to have only amplified the effect.

However, he’d began to notice a couple of boys in their year getting cocky. Jake had mentioned to him before that they had been friends with Carl Powers, and were compliant in the bullying of Jim all those years ago. It hadn’t taken much to figure out they were the ones behind most of the rumours, and Seb had also caught them looking at Jim the wrong way on occasion, which he did not care for.

Sebastian had been walking down the maths corridor a step behind Jim, listening to him complain about the incompetence of his English teacher obnoxiously, when he had noticed them gathered outside one of the classrooms ahead, watching them.

Seb continued to listen to Jim, eyes on the boys warily. He didn’t expect they were stupid enough to try anything, but he hadn’t had a good fight in ages, and was ready to break some bones if they did.

It was the biggest one- Adam, Sebastian remembered his name was- who had stepped forward as they passed to spit,

“Fucking freak.”

Jim had paused in what he was saying to turn and smirk at the boy, eyes lighting up with excitement. He was a good deal smaller, but the air of confidence he radiated seemed to make it less noticeable.

“Adam. So you _finally_ plucked up the courage to talk to me again after all these years. I was hoping this day would come.”

Sebastian stood back, watching Jim stand his ground. The situation was putting him on edge, but Jim seemed to know how to handle himself.

Adam’s fist clenched by his side, and Seb took a small step forward.

“You thought you’d be safe now that you’ve got your new bodyguard?” Adam asked spitefully, not looking at Sebastian.

Jim cocked his head to one side, slipping his hands into his pockets.

“Nah. I thought I’d be safe seeing as you’re _absolutely terrified_ of me.”

Sebastian sniggered, causing Adam to turn on him suddenly.

“You think that’s funny?”

Sebastian took two steps towards him, towering over the boy who looked to be regretting the decision to snap at the short tempered blond.

“Yeah, I think it’s fucking funny. Do you have an issue with that? I honestly don’t mind if you do; I _need_ to shed some blood.”

Adam stumbled backwards until his back was flush against the lockers lining the wall.

“Look, mate, I don’t have a problem with you. Honestly, It’s just him.”

He looked at Jim- who Seb turned to see was watching the events unfold in front of him with a growing look of amusement; pupils lost in his dark eyes. Sebastian’s eyes met his briefly and the corner of Jim’s lip twitched.

“Don’t worry, I get it,” Seb turned back to Adam, who was still leaning against the lockers and watching him anxiously.

“He’s a freak, right? That’s what you said, isn’t it?” Sebastian asked easily.

“Yeah.” Adam answered slowly, obviously confused by Seb’s apparent change in attitude.

“Exactly. A freak. Why don’t you say it again?”

Adam’s eyes darted desperately across to his friends, who were stood at the front of the rapidly growing audience of students, watching uneasily.

“Uhh, yeah. I mean, I already said it.”

Sebastian laughed dryly.

“Come on, you can say it again. Doesn’t matter if it’s true, right? Just go for it.”

Adam dropped his eyes for a moment before mumbling,

“Yeah, I guess he’s a freak.”

Sebastian’s fist collided with the boy’s stomach moments after the words left his lips.

“You really should have seen that coming, you fucking prick.” He growled as Adam let out an involuntary grunt and doubled over.

Seb knocked him back against the lockers with a fierce uppercut, managing to fit in a good few punches and knee to the groin before multiple hands seized him at once and pulled him off the other boy.

Adrenaline and blood pulsing in his ears, he resisted the hands for a few seconds as his eyes burned into Adam’s, which were wide and glistening.

“You come anywhere near him again and I’ll fucking kill you.” Sebastian warned as he was dragged away. He wasn’t entire sure what was fuelling his anger- he’d always had a short temper and was quick to act out physically, but this was different. Something about the way Adam had called Jim a _freak,_ the way he looked at him, the way he presumed to approach him like that, had awoken a deeper anger inside Seb. More than anger; protectiveness.

“Moran. Sebastian, listen to me. You need to calm down.” A voice he didn’t recognise was stuttering too close to his ear. He began to still as he watched Adam being escorted down the corridor with a few more teachers, head tilted back- his nose was broken.

Seb grinned cruelly.

“It’s cool, I’m done now, honestly.” He told his restraints, almost truthfully.

“You’re going to be taken to isolation.” One of them told him.

He met Jim’s eyes again then. The rest of the students who had gathered were being ushered away down the corridor, but he stood perfectly still amongst them, watching.

Fascination was burning in his large eyes, and Seb suddenly felt very exposed under his gaze. There was no point playing down the sudden intensity of his feelings for the other boy now; Jim had seen the extents he would go to purely for his benefit after only knowing him for a week.

Jim knew the hold he had over Sebastian, and now he knew, it could never be unknown.

***

A year passed and time only served to strengthen the bond between Jim and Sebastian. They both stayed on at the Warden Park sixth form, though Jim had taken the majority of his A-Levels early and spent most of his time in advanced classes for maths and physics, and were together for all the time they were physically able, in school and out. The rumours had died down after the first few months, and it was now widely accepted that they were a ‘couple’, though opinions on what exactly that meant were varied.

Sebastian couldn’t pinpoint an exact time when their relationship became _romantic;_ it had always been an unspoken fact between them- they had both always known where their friendship was going to end up- just in the way they gravitated towards each other in the beginning. The way Jim would wordlessly lean his thigh against Sebastian’s in lessons, the way Seb’s arm hovered possessively over the back of Jim’s chair.

They had sparked conversation for a week when it had finally gone public- Seb had been walking Jim to one of his classes in the science block when he had casually slung his arm around the smaller teenager’s shoulders; a gesture he had got into the habit of outside of school. That in itself was earning them stares, and Jim had mocked,

“Careful, ‘Bastian. People will talk.”

Impulse had taken over Sebastian as he raised his other hand to grab Jim’s chin and turn his face towards his, planting a confident kiss onto his mouth as they walked. It was far from their first, but Jim’s eyelashes had fluttered as he pulled away and breathed,

“ _Oh.”_

After that neither of them bothered to hold back- much to the disapproval of their fellow students and teachers who did their best to deter the public displays of affection. Unsuccessfully. Jim and Seb put them back in their place easily most of the time- looks of disgust were often met with obscene threats from Sebastian and comments from teachers with clever and often unnerving replies from Jim.

There wasn’t much the staff could do, and as Jim often reminded them, they were dealing with two of the most intelligent pupils in the school. Jim’s ‘gift’ as he was now referring to it as, was becoming more apparent as he got older; the sixth form were finding it increasingly difficult to keep him stimulated during his classes, and his I.Q results had shattered previous student records.

Sebastian too was coming into his own academically. He always knew he was intelligent, but had lacked the motivation to try at his old school, and so the popular opinion that he was rather deficient had developed. However, under Jim’s influence, he was embracing his natural academic skills. He was top of his course in English Literature and Biology, and after mastering French to the point of fluency, he was halfway to learning German too.

This came as a great amusement to Jim, who spoke about ten languages. He’d known Gaelic when he moved from Ireland, had taught himself Latin when he arrived, then Spanish, Italian and Portuguese, German, Russian, and had learnt French in a matter of months after finding out Seb was doing well in it.

They often conversed in French during classes- mostly for reasons of privacy but also because Jim liked the way the words sounded in the accent that came easily to Sebastian.

_That accent becomes you, my dear. I might make it a permanent fixture._

Seb woke up most mornings in a daze. The change in his life over the past year was so dramatic he didn’t even know how to fully comprehend it, and still half expected one day to realise Jim had been nothing but a hallucination.

He would turn to see Jim’s slender frame resting easily beside him; he spent most of his nights at Sebastian’s house, a fact that remained undiscovered by his parents. Jim looked younger when he was sleeping; a slight pout played around his lips and his eyebrows would relax, not holding their usual arch. Seb often woke up and just looked at him.

He wasn’t one to believe in fate, but he knew that Jim Moriarty was the reason he was alive.

He remembered hearing somewhere that it took two to four years to really love someone, but that was bullshit. He’d fallen in love with Jim the second he laid eyes on him, and that would remain so until the day he died.


End file.
